Mollie Appleton and Sam Blanchard of Norwich Rowing Club won the junior double sculls at Henley Women's Regatta.

Norwich Rowing Club juniors Mollie Appleton and Sam Blanchard won the Rayner Cup for junior women’s double sculls at Henley Women’s Regatta on Sunday.

The regatta is seen to be a major regatta with many first class women’s crews from home and abroad. It was the first win at the Women’s Henley for the club since the late 1990s.

Mollie, 17, and Sam, 18, dominated their class by winning the first round against Bedford Girls School by 4.5 lengths.

Next they beat an Australian crew easily and met Walton Rowing Club in the final. Again they beat them easily.

The winning time of six minutes 32 seconds would have been fast enough to win the senior doubles class.

Mollie started rowing with NRC when she was 11 and has represented Great Britain.

Sam is an Australian squad member on a gap year working at Great Haubois House.

They started rowing together in April and won bronze at the National Schools regatta. They are coached by Nigel Kippin of Norwich Rowing Club. The cup was presented to them by Sir Steve Redgrave.

“Mollie and Sam rowed extremely well together,” said Kippin.

“They really dominated their class. It is possible they might both be Olympians of the future for GB and Australia.”